To Be With You
by Raeghann
Summary: In a time of magick two souls were intertwined, two lives tragically lost, two were forever bound together. In a time of science, when magick has been lost and stories passed into legend, two people will find themselves and the love that was lost.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

We stopped in the clearing for the night; we dared not light a fire as close to my father's lands as we were. I dreaded stepping foot into my father's castle once again. I had fought so long for my freedom, but once it was gained I found it sat bitterly in my mouth. I looked to the man on my right who diligently went about laying out the bed rolls for this evening slumber.

His dark hair curled around his face, a face that would stop the heart of any woman. His smile was sweet I had reason to know. His eyes usually a rich topaz filled with an arrogant command. He was the king of his people, and a prince among men, if only I hadn't been so stubborn. If only I had accepted him as his people wished. During the travel back to my lands I had begun to realize, I did not want to leave the man I had fought so hard to free myself from.

"Darian." I said softly twirling a lock of my own hair around my finger. He looked to me as he sat on his bedroll facing me a defeat in his features that I did not understand. "Forgive me for what I have done; I know I only defied you for that is what my father taught me I was to do. I did not think for myself and now I have rejected the one man I want."

I was grateful for the darkness that hid my blushes at speaking so boldly. If my father had heard my words he would have cut my tongue from my mouth at my betrayal. Darian only stared at me for a moment before standing and pacing the clearing the moonlight haloing him with a silver light.

"You denounced me Elaine." He cried. "You were determined to leave me. I offered you everything."

"_Love me, obey me, accept my people and my heart." He whispered after I had denied him only days before in front of his people. "In return I would be your slave. I would give you everything you've desired. Everything you need and want."_

"_I want only my freedom." I responded stiffly and coldly._

I had seen the shattering of him in his eyes, and my heart had ached. In that moment I wondered if I had made a mistake. In the days traveling back to my father I had become certain of it. He had been abrupt with me and angry, but I could not fault him for it. Now, as we sat on the border of my father's lands I could only pray that I was not too late.

"Darian, I love you, I will obey all that you ask, I will accept your people as my own and I will be _your_ slave if only you will forgive me." I cried staring at him, willing him to stop his pacing, willing him to respond as I wished him to. "Do not take me to my father's house, do not take me back."

"Is this for fear of your father, or because you truly wish to be mine." He demanded stopping his pacing finally, and facing me. I looked up at his face, to find it twisted with longing and denial. Fear glittered in his eyes at the prospect I might be less than serious. Or worse seeking to betray him.

"I wish to be yours." I replied my voice softened by the shame of my words. In those words I had betrayed my people and my family, but I could no longer betray my heart. "Even if you will not take me to wife any longer."

"Prove to me you wish to be mine." He ordered. I watched him carefully, but he still stood before me, his arms crossing his chest as he waited.

I searched my mind for a way to prove my loyalty, my want to belong to him. There was only one way, a way that I knew very little about, for what went on between a man and a maid was not to be spoken to me. Bawdy jokes had little place in my father's house for I was only to know what went on in a marriage bed on the night of my bedding. It frightened me that perhaps had been half of my longing to leave Darian. Fear of what he would do to me if I had agreed to his demands. Now there could be no fear. Just as I had put on a brave front since Darian had kidnapped me from my father's lands, I now had to pretend bravery for a different battle.

I stood slowly and reached for him, my arms wrapping around his neck as I leaned up, and placed a kiss upon his lips as I had once seen a kitchen maid do to a stable boy outside my window. They had seen me looking and had disappeared into the woods near the castle. I had seen no more than that.

"What would you give me Elaine?" He whispered pulling away from my clumsy embrace.

"Anything." I responded, my heart beating rapidly in my chest as I trembled with the fear of what would happen.

"It is too much too late my dear." He said brushing me away, and moving back to the packs we had been carrying to rummage about for something to eat. His hand brought forth a wheel of cheese. "My people might have once rejoiced to have you for a queen, but now they might very well rip you limb from limb for rejecting their King."

"Then do not make me your queen. Surely they will rejoice at their King having their enemy's daughter for his concubine."

The last word was distasteful as it left my mouth. Such things were so foreign to me, but I could not leave this man. All the fear and distaste for him slowly given way to a love that wouldn't be denied, and from the moment we left his lands I had regretted my childish arrogance.

He descended on me so quickly I could not prepare myself, nor hide my fear. His arm wrapped around my waist, his hand in my hair tugging my face toward his, his kiss brutal. I tried not to whimper in fear, but I could not still it. In disgust he pushed me away and I fell to my knees in the soft grass.

"I will not rape you so that you might stay among my people. I will not go to war over you as my concubine. That would be reserved for my wife. I could not ask my people to risk their lives for less. I will take you this night, only if you want it Elaine. Truly want it, and you will return to my people as my wife. I will bind you to me for the rest of your life and should you leave me, you will wither away and die. Should you be the cause of my death, you will wither and die. Such is my power, such is my promise. Do you willingly allow this geas to be placed upon you? Will you willingly allow me to claim you, for if I do the magicks of my people will forever bind you to me? This is not a choice to make lightly."

"Yes." I whispered still kneeling before him. "For I fear I would wither away and die whether you claim me or not. I can not leave you Darian, no matter how much my heart screams against the betrayal of my father and my people."

"So be it." He said and as he said them I felt a warming within me as I had felt before when he had worked magick. I knew that whatever else happened I would forever be with this man and that was all that mattered.

"You will make me a promise as well." I whispered as his arms slipped around me, and his lips paused just a hairs breath away from mine. There had been one other fear that kept me from this man. One I meant to forever put to rest. "You will never again know the touch of another woman. I shall be the only one and all others will leave you dissatisfied."

He paused only a moment before giving me a brief nod and his lips met mine causing another spurt of warmth that I knew was the sealing of our bargain. His hands slipped into my hair, his body was warm against my own. The shock of his tongue slipping into my mouth faded and slipped into a warmth that seemed to be a fire burning me from the inside out. His lips slid from my mouth to my jaw, my neck, my collar bone. I heard a moan that slipped through the darkness and was surprised to find it came from me.

The love that I felt for him burned brightly in my chest blocking out everything else. My fear, my sense of betrayal, my shame at forsaking my people and my father slipped into the night. Everything came down to one person and he stood before me. My allegiance had changed and I would accept the consequences of my actions.

In the darkness where there was only our heart beats, and the gasps of our breath, all doubts faded away leaving just the two of us. Darkness cloaked the truth allowing us to forget it if only for a this brief moment. The linen of my shift slipped off my shoulder and in the moonlight his lips followed it, his hands caressing me as they slid the shift from my body leaving me only cloaked in starlight.

"Do you wish me to stop Elaine?" He whispered his lips feathering against my breast as he spoke. My body burning for him in a way that made stopping impossible. "Tell me to stop now, tell me before it is too late."

"I can't. I would have this if it led to my death." I whispered back even as he lowered me to the bed of leaves that littered the forest floor. It was May Day, the thought whispered into my mind. I need not worry that my father's people would come across the borders of the land. They would be far too taken with the bonfire festivities. Though they might venture into the forest they feared for a night of passion, they would never venture into my beloved's lands for there was a magick there that was all the stronger on the solstice and other such holidays. My heart beat faster as I thought of their passion, something I was about to partake in without the bonds of matrimony. They were peasants and such a thing was not uncommon, but I was not. I was to hold myself above them and what was about to happen would ruin my chances of the allegiance my father sought, but I could not have cared less.

I brushed those thoughts from my mind seeking to forever emblazon this moment in my memories. I shivered at the cool spring breeze swept past us. Quickly his cloak was wrapped around us cushioning us and enveloping us. His lips found mine as his knee slid between my thighs.

"Darian." I cried softly, fear at what was to come filling me. My fear at what I did not know, and fear at the aching that was filling me.

"It will hurt Elaine, but only for a moment." He promised as he stilled, his forehead touching mine as he fought to control himself. His muscles were quivering telling me what it cost him to stop. "I promise I will do what I can to ease the pain. Do you wish me to stop Elaine, tell me to and I will. Tell me now and save us both from the ruin we could create."

"I love you Darian." I told him placing my finger against his lips. "I never wished to love my enemy, but it has come to that. I am a silly woman, my father would say, ruled forever by my emotions rather than the logic blessed to men."

"Your father is a fool not to know what a jewel he has in you." Darian told me his lips dipping to mine. "What he would call witchcraft is indeed a great gift you have been given. You would be revered for what you are."

"I can not live without you Darian." I whispered tearfully. "I would do all you ask and more."

"You know what you do." Darian warned me. "If we finish this you will be forever bound to me. You will be marked; branded, such is my nature. Our souls will be entwined."

"Do you fear such a thing?" I asked my hand pushing a dark curl from his face so that I might see his expression in the moonlight. "I would give my life that you live. I would not take your life from you Darian. I do not fear my death, but I fear yours."

"I made my choice." He responded as he settled himself, his hands running along my thighs, lifting my legs until my knees were bent, my feet resting upon the ground. "I made it the morning we took you from your father's lands. We had intended to ransom you, to negotiate our freedom for yours, but I could not give you back. It would have pained me greatly to do as you asked, but I could not cage you. Now I would take what you give whether for fear of your father, or because you truly choose me, such is my need for you. Never did I imagine when I took you that I would need you as much as I do. That I would go to the furthest of lengths to possess you, or that I would risk my very soul to have you at my side. I feared when you rejected me what it would do to me. Now I fear of what will happen to both of us. Still, I would die a thousand deaths rather than parted from you."

"I want to be yours." I assured him kissing him softly. "I want be consumed by you. To be owned by you."

So desperate was our love in that moment that we forgot the needs of our people. We forgot our war; we forgot everything, but the darkness and the smell of the earth, and each other. The bonfires were raging, the night of fertility at its peak and my cry as he broke through the barrier of my virginity smothered by his mouth. I would forever be his. As I shuddered beneath him with my first glimpse of paradise, his teeth bit into my shoulder as he followed me, a branding as he promised. For even as he loosened his teeth a burning fire cauterized the wound and left behind two red crescents. Gently he kissed that spot, soothing the burning with his mouth.

"You're mine Elaine." He whispered. "Now and forever, through eternity you will bear this mark that brands you as mine."

"I wear it with pride." I responded, just before my eyes were blinded by the light of a lantern. Guards surrounded us and my father stood only feet away, his eyes burning with hatred.

"You betrayed your people Elaine." He cried as the guards ripped Darian from my embrace. "You bewitched her did you not?"

His eyes fell on Darian who stood proudly despite his nakedness. His face went red with rage as he saw the red that stained Darian and my thighs.

"No father. Leave him be." I cried throwing myself in front of my lover. "He has done nothing wrong."

"The filth has defiled you Elaine." My father growled. "You are no longer pure for your marriage."

"Marry me to him Father." I cried ignoring the stares of my father's men at my own nakedness. "Marry me to him and forge an alliance that will forever still this war."

"I'd die before I'd marry you to the leader of the rabble that opposes me." My father said with a finality that crushed all my dreams. "Take this man away. He will be put to death, and the rabble that follows him will be left leaderless. You my daughter will be married within a fortnight. On the morrow your lover will be burned at the stake for his witchery. If any of you men allows a breath of this to reach her betrothed's ears I will kill all of you."

"No!" I howled fighting as they led him away, tearing as they sought to cover me with my lover's cloak. "Let him go, you can not touch him while he is on his own lands father. He and his people were given this land and you have no power here."

"You're right." My father replied, his anger at my words apparent as he moved closer to me. He jerked me across the rough ground until we stood on his lands. Glancing back I watched as my father's men released their prisoner. I wondered why he did not use his power to save us. "You will defy me no longer."

Never had my father struck me, never had I given him reason. When his hand connected with my check I cried out in shock as I fell, Darian's cloak pooled around me. Naked, and nearly as feral as the barbarians my father denounced his people as, Darian raced across the border and my heart sank.

"You are on our lands now." My father growled as his men once again took hold of Darian. Iron was clamped onto his wrists and I knew he had wasted his chance to use his magick. Iron would quiet his powers and leave him relatively helpless, and my father knew it. "Take him away, on the morrow we will burn him for bewitching my daughter and she shall marry as planned."

"Please father, I will do as you say, just let him go. Do not start this war afresh; you could end it all here." I begged still on my knees, my pride ground to dust with the fear of what would happen to Darian.

"The war will end with his death." He responded, his mind made up and no mere slip of a girl could give him better judgment. They beat him before me, my father relishing the pain in my eyes. The ride back to the castle was filled with pain and darkness. I had given my heart to the man they had beaten until he had to be tied to a horse for our return. They allowed me to dress, but they left him naked, still he had the body of a god and while they sought to defile him, he took it with bravery and remained proud.

Once I was finally deposited back into my rooms at my father's homes, I submitted to my nursemaid's ministrations, and pretended placation. The moment she had dimmed the lights and left me to my dreams, I slipped through the secret passage in my room. I had played with my mother in these passages from childhood, and when she was gone I continued to play. I knew everyone of them well enough to navigate in the blackest pitch. I had only one passage I was looking for this night and that was the one that lead to the dungeons.

I slipped past the guards who sat drinking and playing dice. They were so certain their prisoner was powerless in his iron bonds that they were deep into their revelry. Moonlight lit the cells that would have been black holes, despite the torches that lit the hallway. Silent as a shadow I slipped among my father's prisoners until I found him. The moonlight haloed his head just as it had in the clearing hours previous. He sat in a bed of moldy straw, his head resting in his hands; finally they had allowed him clothing.

"Darian." I called softly curling my hands around the bars of his prison. He looked up swiftly. "Darian, I'll get you out of here I promise."

"No Elaine." He said as he slowly stood, I winced knowing it was stiffness from the beating. My heart ached for him. "No, he will kill us both. If you have the chance slip away to my lands." With pain he took the signet ring from his finger. "I name you the new queen Elaine. Tell my advisor Rogan that I have given you power. My people can not have their sovereign ripped from them. They must be led, or your father will take control. You have the power that is why I chose you, why I decided to wed you after we kidnapped you; you have the power of my people."

"Darian, they will not take command from a mere woman, nor will they listen to the woman they will be certain betrayed you. I must free you if only to return you to our people." I insisted. "Besides, I would die without you. Remember the promise I made only hours ago Darian. I am the cause of your death. It is because of me you were caught and are in this prison. I will wither and die."

"Oh love. I can't undo it; it was not what I meant when I created the geas, but there is nothing I can do to counter it." He whispered his hands touching mine through the bars of his cell. Tears were heavy in his voice. "I never meant to……….. "

"Hush, I know." I replied. "We can't loose hope, we will find a way."

"I had thought my daughter would be too soft headed to stay away from the riff raff that soiled her." My father's voice boomed from behind me and I felt all hope lost. "Take her to her rooms and lock her in there I want a guard posted inside her room until the morrow."

"I love you Darian." I cried as they dragged me away. "I love you."

"Let her go damn you." Darian cried as he threw his already battered body against the bars. "Don't you dare hurt her."

"Hurt my daughter?" my father asked his hand on my shoulder while the men struggled to hold me. From the anger on his face I did not expect him to mean the incredulous words he spoke.

"You know you hate her; she has never been more than a pawn to you since her mother left to return to her people. My people." Darian hissed. "I swear if you harm her in any way, I will find a way to bring you to justice." Despite the Iron that ringed his wrists and dampened his abilities I could feel the power rising around us. The air practically crackled with it. "I bind my life to hers and nothing you can do will separate us. Not even death with lessen our bond. Through eternity we will be bound together and a curse will fall upon those that seek to thwart us. A curse upon anyone that dares to hurt this woman."

I could see the fear on my father's face, but his guards dropped my arms. My hands once again free, I slid them through the bars to entwine with his. He kissed my hand and I added my power to his as he had taught me. Together we sealed our fates.

"Go back to your room Elaine, you can not free me." He whispered the love in his eyes causing my already battered heart to shatter. "Come morning know I love you."

"No." I whispered pleading.

"Yes Elaine, you promised in that clearing you would obey me. Now do as I ask and return to your room." He said sternly. I might have left feeling as though he had rejected me, had I not seen the tears in his eyes. I knew it was killing him inside as much as it was killing me. If only to ease it, I nodded and allowed the men to gently lead me away.

I did not sleep that night; instead I stared into the stars remembering the night I had been given. If nothing else I had been given one night of happiness that was not controlled my others. I had taken control of my own life and I had lived. As the morning dawned, tears streamed down my cheeks and I knew in my heart it was to be Darian's last. I knew it with the inner knowledge that frightened my father.

They escorted me to my father's pavilion, ten feet below us was a bier. Oil soaked torches stood at the ready, oil soaked wood surrounding a single post. I prayed as I had never prayed before. Darian had to have some way to save himself with his magick. Some how it had to be done.

His dark head was bent as he was lead into the courtyard and the jeers of the crowd made my heart clench. He looked up, his eyes on me as they led him up the bier and tied him firmly to the post. Never had I seen the arrogant proud man that I had spent the past months with, look so defeated.

"I love you." I whispered and I knew he could read my lips.

"I loved a woman far more than myself and for that I will die." Those were his last words. My heart stopped as they lit the brier. As the flames reached him, and he began to scream, tears streamed down my face. The smell of burning flesh making made me retch helplessly over the side of the wall. My father's face was alight with demonic joy, as he watched his nemesis burn. I looked down to find I knelt on the edge of the wall. Slowly I stood as I realized there was no one close to me. My hand touched the edge of the stone wall and I let the balls of my feet hang over the edge. Still no one noticed me. Looking at the unforgiving grey stone beneath me, I knew I would die one way or another, but this way I would die touched only by one man. My love for him still warm in my heart. The marriage my father wished upon me never to take place. With a deep breath I raised my arms like a bird and I flew.

"No!" Was the last thing I heard, a scream wrenched from my lover's lips.

"I go to be with you." I whispered, and somehow I knew he heard me.

_As Dream to Dream and Battle with Fate are close to their end I decided it was time to allow this story to come out of hiding. Hopefully you enjoyed this prologue, I know it has nothing to do with Newsies at the moment, but I promise it will. _


	2. Chapter 1

He watched her as she slipped through the gardens, her hair glimmering as the sunlight fell upon it. He knew in the darkness her hair was a rich brown, but here in the sunlight she seemed all honey bronze. Her fair skin was lightly touched with gold from where the sun had graced it. Her people coveted milky white skin, and so she had been kept from the sunlight. It was the days spent in his gardens that had kissed her face so, changing her from a sickly pale color to a healthy pale gold. Her cheeks held a rose that hadn't been there, more gold streaked her hair. The soft blue of the dress his seamstresses had made for her complimented her coloring and the eyes he knew were a stormy blue. Like the storm clouds that brought torential down pours, a grey blue, touched with indico and purple. He watched hungrily from his balcony at the woman he wanted. He could not explain why his heart leapt, nor why she had become a fixation in his daily thoughts.

His eyes fell to her body, taking in her womanly charms. She had been so thin when they had taken her, so weak, but the time with his people had curved her figure nicely. He had watched her from afar for days now plotting what he would do. A marriage between his enemy's daughter and himself might bring peace to the two lands that had warred for generations. Her father certainly would not be pleased; his original plan to ransom her for peace was no longer an option

Or rather he could no longer make it an option. She had power, power that had come to her from her mother, a power her father had worked to still within her. Elegant iron bracelets had been welded to her wrists, effectively shackling her to her father's beliefs. He wondered if she even understood the power she could wield even when the iron had weakened herher abilities. She couldn't very well practice in secret with the iron around her wrists. Her father knew that the less chance she had to use it the more it would wilt away.

He could feel the strains of it within her that were almost weakened to disappearance. He watched as she raised a hand to brush her hair from her face as she bent to smell the roses that grew in this part of the garden. A beautiful deep scarlet blossom looked quite becoming next to her skin, he made a mental note to mention such a color to the seamstress. The long sleeves of her gown slipped to her elbows revealing bare wrists that still held the slight discoloration in the shape of ornamental swirls. He wondered if she even understood the reason, or need for the inricate iron that had been dipped in gold. Coated for her safety for the metal not only dampened her powers, but also was a poison to those of power. The powers only appeared in those with fae blood, and it was common knowledge that the fae were poisoned by iron. Though the fact had been watered down into legend and story.

He wondered not for the first time at his enemy. What man could bind and sicken his child for the sake of stilling her power? What man could love a child less, and use such a charming creature for his own pawn. What man could shackle his own daugher? From her fierce protestation he knew she had no understanding of the true purpose behind the shackles round her wrists. He thought of her mother, a woman of great power and great courage. He could see glimpses of her mother's sharp intellect in the girl before him. An intellect he wondered at when he remembered the sacrifice her mother had made in leaving her daughter with the husband that was slowly killing the wife he claimed to love. For it had been a severe lapse in judgement to leave the girl when she had returned to her people, his people.

Then she had also protested her mother's ablities along with the battle she had wadged to keep her cuffs. He smiled with bemusement; of course the beautiful daughter of his enemy had protested everything, just as a dutiful daughter should have done. Still, he had a feeling that her will and her duty had been forced upon her, both in training from her birth and violence from her father. When she had been brought to the castle there had been healing welts and bruises under her dresses where they would not show. He would not have known had it not been for the maids he had assigned her. Nor would he have known about the brand on her shoulder. The brand that marked her as her father's like cattle that had been marked in ownership by a farmer.

The fear that came into her eyes when he spoke of her father ripped at his heart and he knew in his soul he could never send her back now, no matter the cost to his kingdom. He cursed himself - he was a king! He had no right to think of himself or this woman above the good of his kingdom. Still, there were many options now. If her father were to die suddenly and he were to marry her, by the laws of her people he would regain the land her father had stolen from his people. They were already at war, were they not? Perhaps her father would attack in full now, but it was something that was going to happen anyway. He had just forced her father's hand.

"What will you do with the maid?" A welcomed voice asked from behind him, the voice of his mentor, advisor, and friend. He turned and smiled grimly at the man. The question he had been pondering was on the minds of everyone within his kingdom. He had to come to some conclusion soon. He had to decide between his heart and his beliefs. His people and what he had been taught. The death of an enemy at the freedom of his people, or the taming of said enemy possibly to his people's detriment. His head was beginning to ache abominably.

"I do not know Rogan. I was puzzling it out in my head as you spoke, I find the Lady Elaine a complex problem. One that offers so many different paths to tread. Some I see as unbearably dangerous, others far simpler. Unfortunately the hardest path is generally the morally correct one." He said as he rubbed the ache in his temple in an attempt to ease the pain. " The easiest action would be to continue our original plan, however I am afraid we cannot ransom her now. She has power. Her mother was my ally and her blood runs strong within her daughter. Not even the iron shackles he forced upon her has completely diminished her power. By rights she should have been tapped by now, the power should have died and her with it. Such power added to my own could allow us a victory in this war . If only we trained her and taught her to meld powers with mine we would be damn near unstoppable."

"She is an interesting puzzle to be sure, Darius." Rogan responded quietly. "Still ,the question that lies in what you speak of, is whether or not we could teach her. If she wished to remain powerless we cannot stop her."

"And then we sentence her to death." Darius argued. "Can we in good conscious allow her to die? She may be my enemy at the moment, but mayhaps we can change her. Perhaps we can show her the light, we can teach her what she needs"

Rogan smiled thinly at his pupil's eagerness and knew that within the king still beat the heart of a man. He could feel the longing of his student; the need for this woman despite the cost. Such women in the past had caused the down fall of many a good leader. If there was anything he knew, it was that Darius was the best leader they had been granted in many years.

"But you can not do to her what her father has done. It is against everything we believe in. You would be courting the dark in forcing her to do anything that is against her own beliefs."

"So how do we show her that her father's beliefs are wrong? How do we show her the light Rogan? If we keep her unshackled she is open for the dark. We can not risk her father realizing what an incredible power he has had at his finger tips for years. We can not teach her and allow her to return with the knowledge to break us. "

"Do we risk teaching her then, or do we shackle her all over?" Rogan questioned. He knew the answer, but hoped Darius would give him the correct one. He had all but raised the lad; surely by now he would know the correct answer.

"You know we can not. It is against everything we believe and tell our people. No child of magick is to be leashed; shackling is for the evil and the depraved. She is neither; rather she is a confused child in a war she does not fully understand. She has never truly known her mother. And her mother could not tell her what she was without the wrath of her father. Can we in good conscious send her back to a life that killed her mother?"

"I do not know. The best thing to do would be to train her, to show her the light behind the darkness she fears. Still ransoming her back was the best chance this kingdom had at freedom from its oppressors." Rogan sighed. "I see your dilemma and I am not feeling that either option is for the best. Either way blood will be spilled."

"Look at her, for more than likely the first time in her life she has a healthy color; she has gained weight that she sorely needed. The shackles were stealing her life, for there is a price at ignoring one's gift, especially when she has some destiny with this gift. Fate shines about her. Can we kill her? For by shackling her, the power will leach out of her and she will weaken again, and this time it will kill her. Can we poison her with iron? Can we tourcher such an innocent soul?" Darius whispered in an attempt to hide the venom in his voice. His heart ached at the thought of her death.

As he watched her, he had to admit there were women thatw were far more beautiful, and yet there was something about her, something exotic, something different, and something that made him want her more than any other. He knew he was not alone in his thoughts as, there were other men that watched her as he did -- he had seen them. He didn't know what it was about her. Was it because she was forbidden fruit? Would he want her as much if he could have her? He would have to ponder this carefully.

No moves could be made at the expense of his people. The road before him, the only one at the moment he could in good conscious follow, would be to train her. He would pray nightly that in training her he was not trading the freedom of himself and his people. At the end of her training, like all students, she would be given the choice of what she wanted. She could return to her father, or she could stay among them as his bride. Her beauty and the kindness he knew that was within her would make her a good consort. His people would fight for such a woman; they could love such a woman. Perhaps in the end _she_ would win this war.

"Train her Rogan." Darius said softly, but firmly. "Bring Meg in from the countryside; she is both gentle and wise. A woman that might reach the hard headed Lady Elaine. Perhaps she may be made to see her father's folly. If not, at the end of her training I will shackle her and return her to her people if that is her will."

"The King has spoken, so shall it be done." Rogan replied respectfully and with a tone that held finality. Darius could only hope he made the right decision. In his heart he knew it was the only one he could make and continue to walk in the light. His heart ached with both fear and longing as he turned his attention back to the woman. Gently she touched a rose, this one wilting. He watched as she felt the soft silky blossoms between her fingers. The blossom slowly rose, soft silvery light glowed from her hands as it fanned out and returned to its former glory. He heard her gasp, and saw the joy that lit up her face, only for a moment before fear replaced it. He watched a stab of unease filling him, her fear very well could bring the death of himself and his people. Distrust brought on by prejudice against the different had caused death and destruction throughout history. He shook his head sadly knowing it would continue to do so long after he was dust.

He lowered himself to the plush grass below his feet and closed his eyes. Surely if he put the questions that raced through his mind like a fox chases a rabbit away for a moment his options would be clearer. He might know how to proceed. He breathed deeply, letting the tension slide from his shoulders and into the ground. It had rained long enough ago he was not muddy or unduly dampened by laying on the ground, but not long enough that the smell of the sweet grass wafted along the air. The sun shone on the back of his eyelids turning them red and gold. A voice broke through his concentration and for some ungodly reason he felt compelled to respond, or at the very least open his eyes.

"Wake up!" The bellowing reached his ears and he struggled to remain where he was. To finish what had begun. He had to see where everything led to. He had a country to run. "Come on ya lazy bums get outta bed!"

"Come on Cowboy, ya know if ya don't get started, I ain't ever gonna get the rest of the bums goin'."

He ignored the words and buried his head under his pillow where the sunlight filtering through the dirty windows of his current home could not take the place of his dreams where at least his surrounding had been plush and beautiful.

The pillow slipped from his head and the light slid over his tightly squeezed lids. These dreams came to him rarely and he hated to lose them. The moment his eyes opened, the dream would filter away like the mist on the streets after a rainy night to be burned off by the sun's heat.

Besides these dreams meant something. He didn't know what yet, but every time he had one, something changed his life. The last time had been the morning of the strike. At the time he had wanted to shake the dust of New York off his badly scuffed shoes and head west for Santa Fe. Instead he ended up with a lot more responsibility and a girlfriend who didn't want to leave her family. His life had effectively changed in only a matter of weeks.

He still thought of Santa Fe from time to time, especially now that Sarah was getting married. Well, possibly, but according to Dave, his best friend and Sarah's brother it as likely. He felt a wave of melancholy take him; he was getting too old for this life. Soon he would have to find another job. One could only be the leader of the Manhattan newsies for so long. Soon Les would be soon too old to pawn off with the sweet little kid banter he had been so good at. He was joining the ranks of the older kids, which was sadly leaving Jack in the position of a has-been. A little brother was great until they got old enough to take off on their own.

He couldn't discount his youthful good looks that allowed him to pass for sixteen at eighteen, but he had to face the way the world worked. This was going to be his last year among the newsies. At eighteen he should be a man, he should be entering the factory as so many before him had. He should be looking for a future, a wife, a place to settle down. Isn't that what every man in this city was supposed to do? Isn't that what Sarah wanted for him? Or rather for them? Isn't that why he had to let her go? Though to be perfectly honest with himself, his interest had dulled and he had begun to be dissatisfied with her anyhow.

With a sigh he opened his eyes. His musings were already making the dream slip away. If nothing else, he reflected with a grumble, at least he should be left him with the face of the broad. The one that always caused him so much trouble, not that he could entirely remember what the trouble was. If he thought hard enough to give himself a headache, he could remember the sable hair shot with gold that felt like silk. He might catch the memory of the softness of unbearably blue eyes -- the color he had been so certain was the same as the Santa Fe sky when the stars would fill the sky.

She had come to him many times over the years; sometimes the dreams were in far away times that Les enjoyed pretending about when he swung his toy sword. Sometimes it was in times far closer to his own. She looked slightly different, the style of her clothing changed, but he knew one thing for certain: she was trouble. No matter what the dream was, he always trusted her, and it always turned out badly for him.

"Sweet dreams Cowboy?" The wisecracking tone of the little Italian that suddenly appeared before him and grated on his nerves. "That smile on ya face said ya were dreamin' about a dame. Missin' Sarah so soon?"

"Shut that hole in ya face Race. Ain't no such thing. I wasn't gonna take the plunge she was after and that was that. Besides accordin' to Davey she's already seein' someone that her folks like and they're hearin' weddin' bells."

"Sure ya don't miss her." Race shot back, elbowing the muscular boy standing next to him with an equally smug smirk on his face. "Sure gets lonely at nights when ya don't have a girl don't it."

"She wasn't for me Race, for a little while I thought she might, but her family wouldn't have had it." Jack growled. "Would ya just leave it alone?"

Mornings were never the best time, especially when he had The Dream . This dream was the beginning, he knew it somewhere deep inside him. This is part of what started it all. He didn't understand the feelings that were flowing through him, and it only irritated him all the more.

"What do ya mean her family wouldn't have had it? Accordin' to Davey they thought ya hung the moon." Race's companion said in a teasing voice that only irritated Jack further.

"Yeah, well I hung the moon, but I don't exactly have a bunch of prospects for takin' care of a family now do I?" Jack snapped "Not that I want a family. I'm goin' in the washroom now and if any of ya bums want to keep talkin' about it I'll soak ya."

"Looks like we'll be in for some entertainment if the Delancy's show up." He heard Race say softly. "And I can't say I wouldn't rather him takin' his frustrations on them and leavin' us alone."

Jack felt a momentary pang; he hadn't ever heard the boys talking about him that way. You'd think he was Spot Conlon. He didn't have half the iron fist Spot did, and he hadn't ever taken his anger out of his boys before. Damn woman, she didn't even exist and she was causing him problems. The boys gave him wide berth as he got ready for the morning, which only frustrated him more. With a growl he threw the leather cord of his hat over his head and stomped downstairs.

The morning was clear as a bell, the kind of clear that told him this afternoon would bring a storm. After you spent years running the streets you learned quickly what the weather would do. Looking west he saw the scattering of gray clouds that told him he was right. With a sigh he headed toward the distribution center where he would buy less papers than he had counted on, no one was going to buy sopping papers. Not to mention the distribution center only took them back if they were in relatively good shape. On top of it all he was on his own today. Les had started school and Davey had gone back the moment his father had taken a clerking job for the local factory. He might limp for the rest of his life due to the leg that had broken only a year after his arm had healed and had mended wrong, but Davey's father wouldn't have to worry about that while adding figures.

The rest of the newsies said nothing as he strode to the front of the line and bought his papes. He was the leader, and with that role came certain perks. That line of thought only brought him back to his job dilemma. Maybe if he played his cards right he might be able to ask Davey's dad to get him a job at the factory. He had wanted more for his life, so much more than his father. Instead, he could look forward to a life of drudgery and back breaking work; until his body gave out from the strain or he was injured. It wasn't as if the factory cared how safe their machinery was. There were always more immigrants that would take his place. At the thought he found himself growling at the little old lady that had been about to buy a paper from him.

With a sigh, he watched her retreating and looking back at him as if he were a rabid animal, he gave up and wandered toward Central Park. There was one place there he could be sure of clearing his mind. He took the path just before 79th street until he came to Graywacke Arch. He lingered for a moment, enjoying the bridge. It had such a feeling of _oldness_. He wasn't sure how else to describe it, but he knew the moment he slipped under it and headed toward his destination the feeling that filled his dream the night before would become clearer. He still wouldn't understand it, nor would he really remember the dream, but he would be in like surroundings. He meandered up the path past the Great Lawn and turned on the pathway that led past the turtle pond and up to Belvedere Castle. Looking over his shoulder at the sky he could see the clouds moving closer. They were piling on top of each other, promising for a spectacular storm.

Belvedere Castle sounded so much more grand than it actually was. Really it was nothing more than a glorified lookout. The windows were open archways that let in all manner of weather, but it suited his mood. With nothing to distract him like the last time he had one of the dreams, he slipped up the steps and into the steep turning staircases in the turrets of the towers. The stone around him curved with the staircase making him feel almost as if he were in a different time. Moving out onto the lookout he could see across the Great Lawn. Vacationing families were picnicking; though he could see them glancing at the sky and it's approaching weather. He watched a man tossing a baseball to his son who held a stick. His mouth twisted in a smile that held a bit of bitterness and a bit of wistfulness. Bitterness for what might have been and wistfulness for what he was determined would happen. No way was he going to let his son grow up on the streets like him. His son would know happiness even if he knew poverty. As he watched few of the families were even beginning to clean up their food and fold their blankets. He hoped it poured ; his papes were stacked behind him just inside the turret, so that with any luck they would remain dry.

He was alone in the castle, feeling of the sun warmed stone underneath his hands and the feeling of the cool breeze rushing past him soothed him. The scent of rain in the air exhilarated him. He could hear the thunder that told him it was coming, something was coming. For a moment he felt only the freedom of the moment and savored it. It was as if he were standing on the brink of something. Soon that feeling of freedom would evaporate forever and he had only this short time to enjoy it. He lifted his arms as though he would fly as a great gust of wind swept past him bringing with it the beginning drops of the storm. He dropped his hand back to the stone and opened his eyes.

On the stairs below him he saw a dark head coming from the stone walk where he had entered not that long ago. It caught his attention as he wondered how he had managed to miss the slender figure that moved into full view. Sable hair wove down the back of a girl, and his heart lurched in his chest. Her skin was fair, and her dress told him she was not rich, but neither did she work too hard for her living. A seamstress if he was any judge, and after you spent as long on the streets as he did you learned guess rather correctly the income of those that passed you. That was not to say the seamstress of the city did not work hard, but their job was cushy in comparison to the woman that worked in the factories.

It was as if he had made some noise, called out to her, or something like it. He knew he hadn't, he knew he had remained silent; but it was as if his very gaze was calling to her. She turned and looked up at him. Her features were delicate, though small from this distance, and though he couldn't see her eyes he knew they would be an incredible shade of blue. As she lifted a hand to brush away a tendril of hair covering her one of her eyes, her unbuttoned sleeve slipped down her arm with the movement. Elegant swirls of polished metal gleamed from both her wrists; he couldn't tell the metal,only that it was darker than the silver.

The sight of the cuffs filled him with anger, the same kind of anger he had felt toward the strike. It was as if he had watched the bulls slap a pair of shackles on an innocent woman. His righteous anger must have clouded his mind, because for a moment, he could have sworn his hands that gripped the stone of the wall glowed a pale, golden color. They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity, but must have only been a few minutes. Then she turned and fled. He watched as she moved as gracefully as a gazelle down the long flights of stairs to the path below. Her hair swirled in the sudden wind that had picked up, her skirts swishing as she moved. His heart stuttered in his chest, as feelings flooded him, feelings for a woman he didn't know. They made what he had felt for Sarah seem like a hazy, misty, shadow. Like the fog that burned off quickly in the heat of the sun. He stood statue-still for only a moment before ran across the lookout and down the staircase, taking the stairs two at a time, and nearly breaking his neck in the process. Down onto the entryway, past the staircase he had originally taken and down the main stairs he ran, but she was gone. With a growl to himself he shoved his hands in his pockets and headed home. It wasn't until he was nearly there he realized he had left his papes.


End file.
